the following is Kumaran Pillai’s speech delivered at TOC’s ‘Give up your seat‘ by Chong Ai Ling:
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Who would have ever thought that the public transport would be the Achilles Heel of our present meritocratic government? Even George Cherian said, immediately after the May hustings that, the public transport woes could be fixed by a technocratic team and GE2011 has only awakened the sleeping giant and that our government would respond positively to the feedback from the ground. Unfortunately, matters have only become worse.
Their initial response was promising though; Tuck Yek was seen riding on the trains and buses which gained some positive response from the public. He was seen to be rolling up his sleeves and getting down and dirty. I used to wonder as to what a minister would be able to ascertain from these rides. In local lingo, it is called wayang, a show to appease the public, but, a show is only as good as its actors. And, I thought to myself that this actor was missing the plot altogether. The plot was simple, to have an efficient transport system to move the masses.
It is telling that there is no feedback system in place when the Minister has to resort to taking trains and buses to ascertain the robustness of our transport network. Perhaps, he should have also stayed in a train with the air-condition turned off for two hours just to find out how it feels and take a walk in the MRT tunnels as part of his field trip.
As for the recent breakdowns and the Ministry of Transport’s response is nothing less than pathetic. Lui wants to assemble a team of local and international experts to study the problem. Seriously, do we need to seek outside help after running the system for 20 years? This is yet another wayang exercise just to appease us. The proposed course of action, by itself, has opened up serious competency issues about SMRT’s management. It makes me wonder if they even have a handle on the situation. If so, why did the train(s) breakdown again this morning, Saturday 17th of December 2011?
This clearly shows that the current management team does not have its core competence in managing the train fleet and the infrastructure. In fact, what we seen in the last few years are the development of SMRT land and retails malls. I thought it was a great idea back then, that SMRT was maximising the land space in Singapore. But the key question in my mind today is whether if SMRT has lost its core competency in the management of the train network while it was developing new and alternative revenue streams in the retail space? Has the organisation lost its best engineers because of the management’s pre-occupation with building new revenue streams?
It is time for the Board of Directors to rationalise their business. The choice is obvious, SMRT is in the transport business and should focus its energies and resources solely on that. SMRT management should either spin off or manage the retail business by a subsidiary organisation or even consider divesting so that it does not take up any valuable time and resource from the management team.
While there are many people who call for the resignation of the CEO, the underlying reason should be to bring in a new head that will have a critical focus in ensuring that our transport network meets our basic transport needs. What SMRT needs now is a technocratic CEO with excellent operational experience to overcome the current crises.
Unfortunately, wayang and getting a team of experts may be just too late to deal with the breakdowns. What is need now is a swift and steadfast action.
LUI TY sh resigned because he was conned by the whole SMRT team. Being a Minister and is so easily conned is incompetent minister. The public already knows how bad the SMRT is and yet the minister is sleeping at the wheels. Resign now and stills have dignity-before LHL sacked you. LHL will not repeat the same mistakes just like WKS when he failed on Mas Selas case.
Look like the recent increases in fare is not justify given the track record proven by recent hicup in the public transport in Singapore.
Of course the gonmin is not responsible for the failure occured in a GLC which, erm, i think it stands for Government Linked Company?
regards
Mas Selami
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Right from the day that the current CEO was appointed, I felt uneasy about it. She only had retail experience and retail operation experience that are really not too relevant for running MRT. During that period, Mr Chew Choon Seng, CEO of SIA was Chairman of SMRT board. He must have his good reasons in picking the current SMRT CEO for the job. The main business of SMRT is in running an efficient and safe public transport system. Retail shop space is just to obtain revenue perhaps used in subsidising the fare. The CEO ought to be a person familiar with operating a precise, efficient system. If retail shops development is required, one can employ the person as a number two or number three.
I fully agree with the author that it is time to have a CEO with the right experience after seeing what is happening now to SMRT.
We need a ministry that handles FIASCOs.
Quoted from above: “Seriously, do we need to seek outside help after running the system for 20 years?…”
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We have local maintanence engineers who are very experienced in MRT servicing, guess they are all replaced with FTs now.
These god damn retard CEOs save a few hundreds every month hiring FTs vs. local engineers, just to raise their own CEO salaries, now they know it’s not worth it!
We really need to freeze the fare hike for at least 5 yrs, cut the senior management pays by at least 50%, or totally replaced them with younger locals to handle the jobs.
Really tired of these inconsiderate older paracites with too much power, destroying our nation and our future.
Mindanao has never experienced typhoon and now the latter came sweeping an entire village to the sea in a jiffy. Parts of it are now under water.
Are we ready to handle such phenomena brought about by drastic climate changes. To think that it will never happen here is as good as being arrogant to nature.
@Ah Gong
The newer MRT lines use double tracks, the oldest and longest lines, the North-South Line and the East-West use single tracks. The single track legacy is perhaps due to a mixture of inexperience, inadequate planning and projection, and insufficient funding.
You find more information about the upgrading of the signaling systems on both lines below.
http://app.lta.gov.sg/corp_press_content.asp?start=v3kgo0ximqh79wlno7p35t49h5uf363be66dxm3333q0rwmufv
and
http://www.lta.gov.sg/images/Post-NDR_Fact%20Sheet%20on%20Signalling.pdf
and also an article about double tracks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_track
The project has started in 2011 and it is expected to complete in 6 years (NSL) and 8 years (EWL) respectively.
For $1 billion to achieve a 20% improvement, I find the cost benefit analysis wanting. As I have noted, such a complex system invites human and machine errors and the accidents may potentially be catastrophic.
If there were two tracks, it is impossible to have a head-on collision. One may also have a shorter inter-train interval (less than the 100 seconds limited by single tracks after the upgrade).
From a risk management perspective, MOT/LTA ought to have kept things as simple as possible. I suggest it reviews the project and understands the ramification thoroughly to prevent a horrible mistake.
@YoungCEOneeded- erm, are there many local engineers sending in resumes to be a rail maintenance engineer in the first place? Maybe someone inside can enlighten us.
Heard from TV news that the latest inspection ordered by LTA discovered that there are some dislogation of the holding brackets of the third rail over the Orchard to Marina stretch of the MRT track. This is serious, obviously a result of slack in preventive maintenance and services, why is the maintenance crew did not discovered this during their nightly inspection over the track or they just go through motion due to darkness. Didn’t the top management & CEO ensured that the inspection is perform throughtly and carefully. Did the workers who do the inspection are trained and qualified? Is they an annual audit on the maintenance program performed on the MRT system? Does the CEO ensure that a comprehensive preventive maintenance program must be inplace? The whole management team and CEO are obviously negligence to ensure safety of the commuters or they just concentrating on making money for themself, Sack the CEO immediately and make her paid back all the bonus that she had received all these years.
Miss Saw said he will not resign and further said that a good general will not leave the battle-field.
I wonder whose battle-field she’s fighting – hers? or Commuters? I believe it is Miss Saw’s own job rather than for the commuters!
So the government wants a committee to investigate what actually happened causing the SMRT breakdowns. This is all wayang cause the verdict is going to be something like the faults rests on the vendors, maintenance engineers, etc BUT NOT SMRT MANAGEMENT OR LTA OR TRANSPORT MINISTRY! Then expect NTUC together with their affiliate unions will come forward as cheerleaders to praise the excellent works of the transport service providers(including buses and taxis) as well as the government!
Haven’t we live thru that? I stand to be corrected!
Can SMRT not Cork up again?
Lets wait and see.
Oh i cannot wait!!!
Now you see me,
Now you saw
See-saw!
bye bye!
regards
Karmana de Retributoe
Why let her decide whether to resign or no, the authority should demand SMRT to sack her immediately and pay back all the bonus she had recived so far. The reason being she and the top management team had zero knowledge on crisis response and management. Despite a second incident happened on saturday morning SMRT still want to resume service after 6.00 p.m. on saturday evening, instead of carry out a throughtout inspection to find out the root cause of the problem before decide whether it is safe to operate the train again, not until LTA ordered a full inspection I think a third incident may have happened again in the next few days. Can we still allow her and her management team continue to endanger the life of Singaporean by still letting her incharge of the operation?
My car was stationary at a red light junction when it was crushed from the back by an oncoming SMRT bus driven by a mainland Chinese driver in October 2011. Bus driver was adamant that he was slightly sleepy and sought protection from his company. There was no formal apology from the company. I was injured from whiplash and swollen knee and my automotive insurance increased with no fault of mine. A few weeks ago (after 1 entire year), I was told by my lawyers that SMRT wanted to compensate me $1000 for my loss of income, medical bills, bodily injury despite me submitting all the relevant documents. I feel that SMRT is really insincere when it comes to admitting their fault and even tries to avoid compensating victims fairly. How can I seek justice?
Transportation is a SUPPORT structure, if you can make money from it, well and good, but perhaps you have just taken away from the overall competitiveness of the nation. It is extremely bad if you neglect it or mismanage it and directly cause economic disruption and increased costs. In this case, I feel it is outright fraud, not negligence. SMRT reports record profits, but they have misrepresented to the public how reliable and safe the system is. They have also misled us about how well they are prepared for contingencies. Since they are just running the system, I don’t fault them for not doing capacity planning. The fault lies with the government. They have the data, they set the policies, they *know* the growth rates. They know the effect of increasing the population growth rates.
It is the same symptom everywhere, including healthcare. Why employ foreign doctors, who see their job as just something to earn money? Again, they need to remember, it is a SUPPORT service. Why the healthcare groups expected to make a profit? Who is investing in this? The idea for good healthcare is that healthy and healed patients can go back into the workforce and be MORE PRODUCTIVE, or at the very least, less of burden to workers supporting the family. If they have no heart, or if administrators don’t think strategically, then the best policy is to churn the patients as quickly as possible, and discharge them, oh, and save the beds for foreign patients that pay full rate. They still skimp on “maintenance”, i.e. paying skilled local workers, treating them well, and using cheap substitutes (FT).
Of late a lot of wayang are surfacing one after another. And more coming soon. God is Great.
Saw’s reply ‘a good general shall never leave the battlefield’. See how arrogant she is!
By this statement she is actually revealing the obverse – a bad general who thought he was good and refused to admit he is bad. Sheer arrogance!
@Lost Control
Why let her decide whether to resign or no, the authority should demand SMRT to sack her immediately and pay back all the bonus she had recived so far.
@lots of Wayang
Saw’s reply ‘a good general shall never leave the battlefield’. See how arrogant she is!
By this statement she is actually revealing the obverse – a bad general who thought he was good and refused to admit he is bad. Sheer arrogance!
—————————-
not surprising to hear such a statement from a crony who certainly has the full backing from someone high up telling her not to succumb to public pressure.
knowing that they will always never want to lose face, they must insist that they are right in having her there.
moreover, this show of support for some cronies in deep ship now is also an unscrupulous motivation effort to get all their cronies to be bold and stick together and stick to their masters for mutual support and mutual benefit. but all in our expense.
looks like the only hope for a better future is to win more alternative parties’ votes in ge2016.
@Ah Gong
The newer MRT lines use double tracks, the oldest and longest lines, the North-South Line and the East-West use single tracks. The single track legacy is perhaps due to a mixture of inexperience, inadequate planning and projection, and insufficient funding.
You find more information about the upgrading of the signaling systems on both lines below.
http://app.lta.gov.sg/corp_press_content.asp?start=v3kgo0ximqh79wlno7p35t49h5uf363be66dxm3333q0rwmufv
and
http://www.lta.gov.sg/images/Post-NDR_Fact%20Sheet%20on%20Signalling.pdf
and also an article about double tracks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_track
The project has started in 2011 and it is expected to complete in 6 years (NSL) and 8 years (EWL) respectively.
For $1 billion to achieve a 20% improvement, I find the cost benefit analysis wanting. As I have noted, such a complex system invites human and machine errors and the accidents may potentially be catastrophic.
If there were two tracks, it is impossible to have a head-on collision. One may also have a shorter inter-train interval (less than the 100 seconds limited by single tracks after the upgrade).
From a risk management perspective, MOT/LTA ought to have kept things as simple as possible. I suggest it reviews the project and understands the ramification thoroughly to prevent a horrible mistake.
From right, left, top and from every angles possible, I cannot be see how Ms SAW can be a general. NO WAY! she can ever be a general.
No general would insist on staying when he NO longer has the support of his men, it would cost disloyalty.
No general would insist on fighting a losing war. Now it is a losing war for her.
Are you equal to PM, he was a Bridiger General ok ? no , no,no, !
Please Ms
Notice how they let LTY and Saw handle the whole situation and even Joe Teo is nowhere to be seen. This is how they operated. Hire a crony and leave her/him out in the cold if things go wrong.
Hey cronies, you are just scapegoats!
What talking U? It’s not up to her to resign, she has to be sacked at once if SMRT is exercising meritocracy.
Apparently not, and while allowing to resign, she can be offered another job elsewhere within the many companies.
You saw this already happening since May 2011.
Where are the local engineers!!!???
Get good people who we can trust to run this.. Pay them well and stop paying HR/Business development (What the crap do they do anyway!!??)the sky and inflating their egos
In the past Engineers was of equal standing with doctors and lawyers.. They were highly respected..
The stupid govt just thrashed this group by going into financial services because of the glitz and glam and pushing aside the work that was done by the past engineers..
Its crap/
The bird has come back to roost in the case of massive breakdown in the MRT system. Every job should be filled with qualified individuals, not as reward for sycophants and relatives. Especially the top jobs in crucial services need to have its CEO selected from a wide range of people. In this context foreign talents are welcome.
Revenue went up after SAW took over. If any average Joe takes over, revenue will surely go up, reason being higher fares and 2 millions more immigrant commuters
As minister of state for transport, why did Josephine Teo hide herself completely away from the recent fiasco. What a hypocrite! At least, LTY is trying to wayang from the rear!
SMRT CEO Saw should be retired and sent to North Korea to replace Kim Jong il.
She looks Korean enough and both have the same hairdo!
The SMRT CEO cannot resign. She is appointed by The Jinx under our meritocratic system and under no circumstance must she reveal herself to be an incompetent crony. Hence she will prove that she is a good general or die trying.
2 ways about it:
Heads we win
Tail we still win
If saw stays , we win (there will b price to pay n pay)
If saw resigns, we still win.
Seesaw or sawsee,
They Lose.
Neuro is a Sign.
Returning Light Reflects Back.
To understand why maintenance and operations were so bad, check out the background on the Chief Operating Officer of SMRT from 2007-2011. He is Yeo Meng Hin.
http://www.smrt.com.sg/Upload/201112715263376131.pdf
Do you want to know his background? Check out SMRT Annual Report 2010. Let’s stick to the facts. In 2010, he was paid SGD970,272. Before becoming COO, his training ground was in the HR department. Relevant training? His education was a Bachelor of Arts. Relevant education? What was his previous company? This one tells it all. It was DFS. Same company as CEO Saw Phaik Hwa. Apparently, she replaced SMRT old staff with her own people from DFS. Most likely, SMRT old staff had more relevant experience in managing a train network than someone with a retail background.
Singaporeans are paying for the political games played by Saw Phaik Hwa.
It is not surprising that Ms Saw placed her DFS(duty free shop)cronies in SMRT,but it is shocking that she placed a DFS Human relationshop guy as Chief operating officer of SMRT from 2007-2011,so the chief train officer of Singapore was a HR officer then,it was ridiculous,let the board of SMRT say something!please!
@EngineerCEOIsBetter
this is another shocking revelation.
it’s disastrous beyond imagination!
the whole board should be replaced.
Microsoft can be founded and run by an asshole who does not understand software/IT? CEO SMRT can run with a butch who knows nuts about engineering? She only knows how to squeeze costs to the extent all system fall apart. Also brought in cronies from DFS to displace old hands most of whom were properly trained in Germany, Japan, HKG……etc
Ms Saw is a good friend of Ho Ching and they went to school together. Can anyone verify that please?
..that would explain why someone who was retrenched from DFS after working there for 20 years, can get promoted to CEO of SMRT.
@Steve Wu
I have not clicked on the links u enclosed, but figures/data can only be gathered after a certain decision (engineering, management ,scientific, observation etc…)
We need key people to lead who understand tech stuff and people’s needs, and these are considered basic in today’s world. If peoples’ need can’t be fulfilled, then it will be brought up to a political level, that u and i eventually could not understand what those present cowards are talking about.